CHAPTER I
1.
THE WING ON FIRE AND THE APPOINTMENT OF THE
COMMISSION.
22
Outbreak of the Fire:
Just after 8 o'clock on the morning of 22nd September 1948, the
Fire Brigade and the Police Force were notified of an outbreak of fire
in a range of tenement buildings in the neighbourhood of the Des Vocux
Road Wost entrance to the Tai Fing Theatre. The whole block of build-
ings, Nos. 351 to 367 Des Voeux Road West, was rapidly enveloped in
thick black smoke, with the Western end furiously ablaze. The initial
outbreak of fire had been accompanied by a series of explosions of suf'-
ficient force to shoot a number of large iron drums and bales of raw
rubber into and across the road, together with a tongue of flame clearly
emanating from a hole in the top of a bricked up doorway on the ground
floor of No. 363. The ground floor of the tenements formed part of a
godown belonging to the Wing On Company.
Action by the Fire Brigade:
break.
2. The first fire appliance to reach the scene came from the Western
Fire Station and arrived very soon after the first report of the out-
It was
soon followed by other appliances from the Central Fire
Station. As it was quickly realised that a number of persons were
trapped by the fire in the upper stories of the tenements, the Fire Bri-
gado first turned its attention to the rescue of a number of persons
who had collected on the 3rd floor of the most casterly tenement, which
was not so firmly alight as the romainder of the block. All but one of
these persons were rescued quickly and efficiently by escape ladder;
this person lost his foothold on the ladder, slipped and was killed.
About 60 persons were rescued in this way. On the western side of the
building a man and woman were also ruscued by jumping some 60 feet from
the third floor of the tenements into a jumping sheet held by firemen
and policemen, A little later Loting Deputy Chief Officer Tiplady and
Divisional Officer Browne using the long escape ladder with the aid of
a fireman rescued another man and woman from the same floor. The re-
moval of casualties and injured by ambulance completed rescue operations.